Conduits Pocket Launcher is a standalone program launcher that allows you to organise your program shortcuts any which way you want, plus allows quick access to your documents and running tasks (a complete rundown on the program’s features can be found here). You can download a trial or pick it up for $9.95 through our affiliate link. If you are a registered owner of previous versions of Pocket Launcher, version 3.0 is a free upgrade if you purchased the app during or after January 2006, and $3.95 if purchased before that.

Despite the negative view of the PDA market, Engadget offers a good summary of two new Asus offerings. The 802.11g is a nice touch! Though I’m not a GPS user yet, I can certainly see the benefit, assuming that it wasn’t too big of a drain on battery life. The 696 offers 256MB Flash ROM but only 64MB SDRAM. I’d still like to see more. Is GPS a killer feature for you?

Engadget Mobile has scored a few pictures of the upcoming HTC Titan (no, not the TyTN) of which the XV6800 and PPC-6800 are based on. If recent leaks are to be believed, we may see the Titan as early as May. Anyone hoping to make this their next device?

If you have suggestions for other services, let me know in this thread. I am not really interested in links to cab installers for a lot of apps, though I will probably put links to my favorite applications on my Pocket PC if over-the-air installers are available, but it is mainly meant to be a mobile download portal for services that are ideally suited to Windows Mobile devices that have online access, like WiFi or any cellular data service.

Thanks to Bill for making this easy. Personally, I hope the carriers and Microsoft get a ton of flak from this incident when, in a few weeks, most people’s devices get the wrong time on them. I know if I were a average consumer that didn’t keep up with their technology like the readers of this site do, and my phone got an hour off, I’d remember that the next time I purchased a phone, and wouldn’t look for the “Windows Mobile” logo. Who knows, maybe the carriers will push this fix out in the coming weeks.

Man, I am sorely tempted. I’m not sure whether I should go for this or stick with the 700w and wait for the next generation. Any of you thinking of jumping at the offer? [Affiliate]

The folks at MTR have just reviewed i-mate’s JAQ3, and according to them, it’s so-so. The CPU, small screen size, and mediocre wireless performance collectively take off a couple of stars, though to i-mate’s credit, the JAQ3 has a great form factor and high-quality display, so it’s not a complete flop. Still think you might be interested in it? Head over to MTR and read the review.

Crossbow appears, to fairly lukewarm reception by Engadget Mobile. Personally I’m excited to see any OS upgrade, I just wish Crossbow would Wow me a bit more!

Arne at theunwired.net has picked up on FCC documents of a new WM5 phone. Specs of Inventec’s device are still unclear, apart from WM5, BT, WiFi, and triband/quadband GSM/GPRS. The bar code scanner is an interesting addition, and marks this as a business device rather than consumer – and presumably with a price to match. The Opticon does mark the introduction of the sliding keyboard to vertical markets, and it’ll be interesting to see what the final hardware specifications will be.

The Sharp Zaurus line was pretty innovative for its time – one of the first PDAs with a built-in hard drive and keyboard, VGA screens, clamshell design with flip-over screen (preceeding the Universal by a couple of years), and cool stuff like USB host. The fact that it ran Linux meant that there was a lot of expandibility in terms of software and geek credo, even if the built-in apps weren’t always up to scratch. The Zaurus’ main downfall was price, and the fact that availability was largely limited to Japan, though you could get some models through specialist importers like Dynamism.com. This really sounds like the market for standalone PDAs is dying out, unless you have some value proposition that makes sense to consumers like GPS – and even that is now turning up in smartphones. So R.I.P. Zaurus – you will be missed.

Obit at jkOnTheRun